


Deep Space U

by Just_A_Simple_Tailor



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Eventual Romance, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-05
Updated: 2019-05-08
Packaged: 2020-01-05 08:24:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18362258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Just_A_Simple_Tailor/pseuds/Just_A_Simple_Tailor
Summary: Julian Bashir has left his difficult home life for his first year at university. There he will meet a diverse group of people with different majors, goals, and pasts that will soon become his family as well as a mysterious Cardassian who may be more than he seems. College will turn his life around and give him a new outlook on life that he sorely needs and his life will never be the same.





	1. A New Beginning

Julian Bashir stepped out of the hovercraft and grabbed his bag and his few boxes from the back. He thanked the driver who sped off, and looked at the building in front of him. Enterprise Hall; the place he would call home for at least the next two years. Other students were streaming in and out of the building; most with their parents, moving boxes and duffel bags from their vehicles to their dorm rooms. He took a deep breath and grabbed a nearby cart and started putting his things into it. It seemed official now; he was a university student.  
He slowly moved the cart into the dorm and after waiting in line for about ten minutes, checked in at the dorm’s front desk to get his keys- room 309- and thanked the desk clerk; rolling the cart in the direction she pointed. 

"Are your parents going to be up soon?” She asked.

“Oh, um… no I’m here by myself.” He received a look of concern as he started up the ramp. 

He took the elevator up to the third floor and quickly found his room. The door was slightly ajar and he was about to open it when he heard a yell and bitter cursing. He slowly entered to find someone muttering angrily and stepping away from a box that appeared to have fallen on his foot. 

“Hello!” Julian said cheerily “I’m Julian Bashir I presume I’m your roommate.” He offered his hand.

“Miles O’Brien.” The other said gruffly taking it and giving it a harsh shake. He looked at the box on the ground. “Another year, another move-in eh?’

“This is my first move in actually”

“Oh?” Miles said frowning, “Figures they’d pair me with a freshman…”

“Well technically I’m a sophomore”  
Miles looked at him incredulously and Julian continued

“I took a lot of AP classes in high school. And I got 5s on all the exams so I earned a large amount of credits for college. So this is my first year, but credit-wise I’m a sophomore before I even started.”

“I see,” Miles said, “But I wouldn’t go around bragging about that. Now if you’ll excuse me I still have some things to unpack and you obviously do as well.”

Julian nodded and turned toward the cart that held his belongings, picking his duffel out of it first, and started to take out his clothes, putting them in the dresser and whistling cheerily as he did so. The room was already split in half, so he had simply chosen the side that Mile's things were not already being set up on to avoid any conflict. Miles mainly ignored him while they unpacked though Julian tried to make conversation. But when he pulled out his tennis rackets Miles looked interested. 

“Oh you play tennis?” he asked.

“I don’t just play,” Julian replied “I’m on the University team; in fact, I almost considered not going to college and playing professionally for a living. Do you play?”

“Yeah.” Came the short reply.

“Wonderful we should play together sometime!”

“Sure, I can’t wait” Miles said although he didn’t sound very enthusiastic.

After a few hours they were finally finished unpacking and putting everything away, and Miles turned to leave.

“Oh are you leaving?” Julian asked, “ I was hoping we could get some lunch together after all of that work.”

“I’m going to see my girlfriend so…”

“Oh I don’t mind the extra company, the more the merrier I always say.”  
Miles gave him a look.

“Oh, sorry of course. Well, I’ll be seeing you later then eh?”

“Yeah…” Miles said and opened the door.

Julian sighed and sat down on his bed; he figured that move in day would be a lot busier and he had been looking forward to all the activity after what he had had to deal with at home. He laid back, looking at the ceiling, counting the chips in the paint. University students were certainly a a talented bunch to be able to actually ruin the paint so high up; he wondered what the previous occupants did in that room to obtain those results. He wondered if he'd ever have the friends and the carefree attitude to do it himself. Thankfully, Julian was soon broken out of his reverie. About half an hour after Miles left the dorm an announcement came over the intercom.

“All first years please report to the first floor lounge for orientation.” A slightly static-y voice said.

“Well that’s me” Julian said under his breath to no one in particular. “Beats sitting around here all afternoon.  
He left his room and took the elevator to the first floor going down to the lounge and finding it crowded with fresh new faces optimistic about the year ahead. He fit right in.

“All right, all right, “ said a brown haired man about 25 years old in a bright green shirt. “My name is Terrence. I’m the hall director and I’m going to be putting you guys in groups for your orientation activities so quite down and listen up.”  
The chatter slowly came to a stop.

“These are your orientation leaders” he said motioning to five people. “Each floor will get together with one of our leaders to do some fun ice breakers and take a tour of campus. I’ll let you go by floor”

“Floor one, you’re with Crystal” Crystal raised her hand. “Floor two: Jamison” Jamison did the same. “Floor three: Jadzia” A girl -about 20- with long brown hair pulled back against her neck and a confident demeanor raise her hand. Julian immediately noticed how pretty she was; and then noticed the spots on her neck. She was a Trill; surprising for a Terran school. But this was good luck, a beautiful girl like this… he would have to talk to her after orientation. He just had to figure out how. Jadzia moved to the door and Julian followed her and the rest of the students outside. They were lead to a grassy lawn where they stopped near a tree. 

“All right guys let’s get started” Jadzia said enthusiastically. “My name is Jadzia Dax, I’m a double major in chemistry and physics- yes, I am that insane.” Most of the students laughed. “I’ve got some pretty cool activities planned so you guys can get to know each other and start forming relationships that will last a lifetime- and yes, I am forced to say that.” She grinned.

Julian didn’t pay much attention during the activities or the tour and was extremely relived when it was over. He had moved so much and been put in so many camps that ice breakers were nothing special anymore and he had been to the campus so many times he knew it forwards, backwards, and sideways already. He was much more interested in figuring out how to win over their tour guide, than fun stories about the old buildings or the school seal. Finally, Jadzia broke up the group to got to lunch or finish unpacking or whatever they wanted to do and went over near a tree where another girl and a strange looking male humanoid were sitting.

Julian casually went over to them. “Hello,” he said. The other girl; a Bajoran, presumably by the ridges on her nose -there were quite a few at Terran schools trying to make a better life for themselves after the Cardassian occupation- gave him a funny look. “You are…”

“Julian Bashir” he said offering his hand which she took reluctantly.

“A freshman,” the male humanoid said gruffly. “Science major so I might run into you.”

“How did you-”

“I saw you involved in the orientation group that Jadzia was leading, and Enterprise is a dorm specifically for STEM majors. It was quite obvious.”

“Ah! Brilliant!” Julian exclaimed “you have quite the talent for deduction. You are?”

“Odo, I’m a pre-law forensic science major. This is Kira she’s a philosophy major. And you already know Jadzia.”

“Oh yes,” “Julian said, “Jadzia, I was actually going to ask you something.”

“Really…?”

“Yes I um, I wanted to know if you would like to get some lunch with me; get to know each other a little bit”

Jadzia smiled “Well I’m getting something to eat with Kira and Odo, but your welcome to come along.”

“Oh. Yes. Of course” Julian said barely hiding the disappointment in his voice. “That would be wonderful.”

“Well. I assume you remember where the student union is, let’s go.”

But Julian paused for a moment, stock still. It wasn't due to his disappointment in not being able to get Jadzia alone- he could figure out how to do that eventually- no, it was because he suddenly felt eyes on him. Like he was being watched by someone who was carefully observing his every move. Then, it was gone. He shook his head to clear his mind and saw the three others staring at him.

"My apologies," he said, "temporary brain fog; it's been an exciting day. I'm perfectly fine now, let's go"

The four of them headed across campus entering the union; fortunately it was well passed standard lunch time and it was not crowded. Julian easily got food from the replicators and sat down at a table with everyone else. Kira and Jadzia did most of the talking as Odo observed. But Julian could tell that although he didn’t say anything he was taking in every detail. He also noticed that he didn’t have any food.

“Aren’t you hungry?” Julian asked.

“I don’t exactly… have the ability to eat.”

“Really? May I ask what planet you’re from? I’ve never seen a humanoid that looked like you before.”

Odo scowled, “I don’t have a home planet or a people to go back to” he said. “All I know is that I’m a shape shifter. I can change my form into most objects and some animals and every ten hours I turn into a pile of goo.”

“Fascinating!” Julain said wide eyed. “Do you-“

“I don’t want to talk about my biology.” Odo said shortly, then turned to listen to Kira and Jadzia’s conversation. 

After lunch Julian went back to his dorm as the rest of the group went their separate ways. Jadzia was close behind him. 

“Have a good day?” she asked.

“Yeah, I think I did, it was… eventful”

“The first move in day is always like that. But I think you’ll do fine.”  
She waved to him as she turned to the right; towards the town and Julian smiled.

When he got back to his room Miles had not returned; he was probably still out with his girlfriend and who knew how long that would take. Julian sighed and began to sift thought the various files that his professors had sent to him and his class schedule. Philosophy 1120, a gen ed that he had to take was his first class. He remembered that Odo said Kira was a philosophy major. After going through all the files, he spent the rest of the night reading and got into bed at 23:00. He laid back, his mind going towards the new group of people he had met. Jadzia, of course, was wonderful, and though Kira and Odo were a bit gruff, they seemed to be genuinely good people as well. He figured that Kira had probably been through a lot in her young life, as she had grown up on Bajor, but Odo was a strange one, and he had given nothing away about himself other than he was a shifter. Miles, on the other hand; Julian wasn't quite sure if his roommate liked him, but he would certainly try to win him over. He sighed and closed his eyes and was asleep before Miles had come back to the dorm.

Julian and Miles’ alarms both went off at the same time- with very different tones. The two of them jerked up, surprised and both looked at each other.

“What the hell is that?” Miles asked, speaking over the alarm.

Julian shook his head and turned it off. “I should be asking you the same question. But at least we needed to wake up at the same time. What class are you going to?”

“Philosophy 1120”

“Huh.” Julian said, “Same as me, who knew? Well… let’s get ready and we can go together.”

Miles let out a groan. He didn’t really want to go with this annoyingly optimistic freshman, but he seemed to have no choice.  
“Alright, just don’t keep me waiting”

“Oh, that won’t be a problem.”

The two of them got out of bed, dressed, and brushed their teeth in the communal bathroom along with many other students on the floor.

“Appears that a lot of us have class at this time.’ Julian said, his mouth full of toothpaste.

“A lot of students have class at the same time throughout the day; that’s how school works.” Miles replied, “ Now come on. Let’s get moving.”

Backpacks on, the two of them left the dorm and emerged into a sunny day. The moved into the throng of students, weaving in and out through the masses. Miles was actually impressed at the way Julian expertly found passages for them to go through. He could barely keep up. The building of their class was only a five minute walk and they were fifteen minutes early. Fortunately, there was not a class in the room beforehand and the two of them had the option to sit almost anywhere in the lecture hall. Julian saw Jadzia almost instantly, sitting in the exact middle of the room. 

“Come on.” he said to Miles, “Let’s sit over there.” He almost dragged him to where Jadzia was sitting.

“Jadzia!” Julian said brightly, “I didn’t expect you to be in this class, aren’t you a junior now?”  
She smiled at him. “I still have a few gen ed classes to take. Kira recommended this one to me.”

“Kira….” Miles said, “Isn’t that Odo’s friend?”

“You know Odo?” Jadzia asked, surprised.

“Yeah, I went to Bajor in high school a little bit after the occupation had ended and met him there, he helped me out of a scrape- got into some trouble for something I didn’t do- and he helped prove I didn’t do it; smart lad. I knew he went here- invited him to go white water rafting with me over spring break when Keiko couldn’t go.”

“Well who knew Odo had another friend.” Jadzia said brightly, ‘I’m proud of him.”  
Students were now filling the lecture hall. It looked like it would be a full class. Julian peered up into the front of the classroom, hoping to see the professor. He was surprised to not only see him walk in- as well as a man of about 24- but Kira as well.

“Hello and welcome to philosophy 1120, My name is Dr. Sheene,”- he wrote his name on the board- “ This is your TA Benjamin Sisko and your undergraduate assistant Kira Nerys.”  
At the mention of Sisko’s name, Jadzia widened her eyes and leaned toward him. 

“Today will just be an introductory class. We’ll go over the syllabus and talk about what we will learn in this class.”  
The rest of the class was quite boring and Julian mainly paid attention to Jadzia- he had read the syllabus the night before- who was mainly paying attention to Sisko.

“What’s up with him?” Julian whispered to her.

“Kurzon knew him- he was one of his college professors back when he was an undergraduate student.” She whispered back.

“Kurzon?”

“Kurzon Dax.”

“Oh your father or something?”

She looked at him. “Kurzon DAX”

“I know you don’t have to…” Julian suddenly remembered the symbiotic nature of Trill. “Oh… OH!”  
Jadzia nodded.

“But aren’t you a bit young to be a host for the symbiote?”

“There was an accident when transferring Dax to Trill after Kurzon died. I was the only Trill on the ship and I agreed to save it.”

“Wow.” Julian said.  
Jadzia nodded again and turned back to watching Sisko. Julian could not get her attention anymore; she waved of his whispers with a flick of her hand and didn't respond to any more questions. Eventually, he gave up and sat dejectedly, barely listening to the professor talk. If he had been paying more attention, he may have felt eyes on him boring deep into his soul; watching him in a way that one couldn't help but feel it, the same eyes that had been watching him when he had gone over to talk to Jadzia under the tree. 

Finally, the clock ticked onto the hour and class was over. It felt like it had taken 60 years instead of 60 minutes. Julian was already done with anything to do with philosophy but, of course he had philosophy recitation right after. Fortunately for him, Jadzia and Miles had it as well, but unfortunately they were not three seats together. Julian had been behind and was the unlucky one who had to sit alone. He was so busy grumbling about it that he did not notice a Cardassian walk in dressed in a vintage t-shirt, leather jacket, and extremely well fitting fashionable jeans. He also didn’t notice all of the students turn to stare at him, nor did he notice the Cardassian walking towards him slowly. He did notice however when he put his hands on his shoulders squeezing them softly. He turned, surprised, looking into a strange face. The Cardassian smiled and something about it made Julian’s stomach jump in a way it never had before.

“Julian Bashir, I presume,” He said, “I am Garak, do you mind if I sit here?”


	2. The Odd One Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Julian had an eventful move in, but what was Garak doing during this time? How does he know of Julian and how did he prepare to introduce himself?

It was Garak’s final year at Deep Space University. One more year of classes he could pass with his eyes closed, customizing perfect outfits that no one would fully appreciate and gaining more information of Federation life and culture. Of course, the third item wouldn’t matter unless his father would let him come back home. He didn’t exactly want to come back to his family home, but he loved Cardassia too much to stay away from it for so long, and Tain had the power to prevent him from living anywhere else. In fact, Garak had a sinking feeling that Tain had influenced the panel that gave him his full scholarship to the university, just to get him out of his hair. He sighed, walking towards campus. He had been occupying his summer attempting to get into the University’s student records- just for practice- and a freshman had caught his eye. His high school records were exemplary, not to mention the fact that he was exceedingly attractive. There was something refreshing about the optimism in his face that made Garak’s heart feel full. He had to see this student for himself. 

Soon, Garak arrived at Enterprise hall. Fortunately, the freshmen were all exiting the building; most likely for orientation activities. He casually wandered up to and through the throng of students, everyone was too preoccupied to notice a Cardassian, especially once he got into the center of the crowd. He knew from the reports that Jadzia Dax was the orientation leader for Floor 3-the floor Julian Bashir was assigned to- she was a smart girl, but he didn’t interact with her much considering she spent so much time with Kira, the only person at the University that intimidated him- or, at least that was what he told himself. He was easily able to find Julian in the crowd, and got behind him; ready to talk to him when orientation was over, but Julian was too quick and moved over to where Dax and Kira were- as well as Odo who he had some comradery with (they both had a few forensics classes together and respected each others’ intelligence)- and there was no way he was going over there. He stayed back by another tree, pretending to casually read a book, but the campus clock suddenly chimed one, two, three times. Garak had to leave; he had an appointment with a student for his slightly no so legal tailoring business. And it was Morn. So it would take a while. He sighed and headed toward his campus apartment, taking one last look at Julian.

Finally, Morn left. He was always so finicky with his clothes, and spent so much time talking about completely frivolous things that an appointment that should have taken one hour took three. But at least Morn was happy with the final product, and Garak charged by the hour so he got paid three times as much. Garak took a breath of relief and went over to his computer, pulling up Julian’s file that he had saved and looking at his class schedule. His first class was philosophy 1120- and it was Garak’s first class of the day as well. It almost made him believe in luck; but not quite. He reread the Julian’s file one last time, then closed out of it and went to his closet; picking out the perfect outfit to impress Julian was his first priority. No one ever realized how important the perfect look was when making a first impression. He pulled out a few items and then went to the back. He had been saving these jeans, which he had tailored himself especially for a time like this. He smirked, the corner of his mouth lifting up slightly. This would impress Julian; everyone admires a well-tailored outfit. Garak carefully laid out the clothes and looked at the clock. It was 22:00, probably best to head to bed. He needed to wake up early to get to Julian in time. He undressed and got into bed sighing, thinking of Julian. He didn’t know why he had made such an impression on him; Julian wasn’t particularly what Garak had considered his “type”, but he knew the kid was someone he needed to meet; and who knew what would happen then. Garak dreamed that night, but all he could remember of it when he woke up was Julian’s face smiling at him.

Now it was time. Garak showered using Terran soap that he had heard smelled especially good and washed and conditioned his hair. The only thing almost as important as looking perfect was smelling perfect. Finally, he got dressed, paying careful attention to how his clothes lay on his body and looked at himself in the mirror, nodding contentedly. Grabbing his bag and hurrying out the door, he walked quickly, ignoring the stares of the other off-campus students heading to their classes. By this point, he was used to it. Unfortunately, when he reached the lecture hall, Julian was already sitting with Dax, and another young man with light curly hair and what seemed to be an Irish accent- but even with the acoustics of the room, he cold barely make out anyone’s voices. 

This wasn’t good; he couldn’t get to Julian when he was surrounded by his friends. Garak frowned and went to the back of the room in a position where he could observe Julian; who seemed to be paying all his attention to Dax. He would have to get to Julian quickly if he wanted a chance to change his mind. But Garak soon found he had bigger problems: Kira walked into the room. That wasn’t right she was a philosophy major why would she be in this class? He sunk lower into his seat; he really couldn’t be noticed now. He would have to wait until recitation to get to Julian. Garak didn’t pay attention to the rest of the class- he was too busy trying not to be noticed, and once it was over he carefully slunk out of his seat and into the crowd of students, making his way slowly to the recitation classroom.   
He was the last one in, and there were only a few seats left. And one was next to Julian Bashir. Here was his chance. 

He walked in slowly toward Julian, ignoring the other students whispering to each other, and slowly put his hands on his shoulders.


	3. Detective Work

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Julian is fascinated by this mysterious Cardassian, but will he be able to find out anything about him?

Julian was surprised. He knew that the federation had implemented a (pretty controversial) exchange program with the Cardassian Union, but he had not expected to see a Cardassian on campus, let alone such a…. _well dressed_ one, even if the outfit wasn’t his style. He wasn’t sure what to say, but suddenly, the words came out, almost without control.

“Ummmm, sure go ahead”

“Thank you. I am exceedingly grateful. There does not seem to be many empty seats in this room.”

The Cardasian -Garak- spoke in a strange way, but it was somehow endearing. However, there was not much time for conversation as Ben Sisko walked in. He had a confident air about him, but a kind face.

“Hello,” he said, “Dr. Sheene has already introduced me as your TA, and I’ll be leading the recitation for you guys. Please take this PADD and sign your name on it, so I can take participation points.”

Sisko passed the PADD over to a student on the end and it eventually made its way to Garak. Julian couldn’t help but stare at him as he signed his name, but quickly looked away as Garak turned to pass it to him. Julian noticed that his hand was shaking, and with an effort, forcibly steadied it, tensing his muscles as he took the PADD and signed his name.

Garak looked over and grinned at him, then turned his attention to Sisko, who was beginning to lead the class on a discussion of basic logic principles, grin, switching to a very bored expression.

“For someone like you, this should be child’s play.” He whispered to Julian

“What do you mean someone like me? I’ve barely said two words to you”

“Well I’d say you’ve said many more than two. But I understand your intention. And you will soon come to find that I have extensive knowledge of many things… _especially_ things I shouldn’t.”

Julian stared at him, trying to read his face. He couldn’t know, could he? There were no records of it, at least none in any federation databases and the records that _were_ kept should have been deleted by now. But he couldn’t see anything past that shit-eating, pleased grin, and he was actually.. intrigued.

“Well, I must admit you are correct.’ Julian said. “I read a primer on basic philosophical logic in high school. I thought it would help me with medical research.”

“Ah, yes you aspire to be a doctor”

“Why do you have to say that so confidently? And yes… I do” Julian sighed. He apparently couldn’t get anything past this stranger.

“Well you did say medical research, logic dictates that your most likely occupational goal would be a doctor”

Julian looked at Garak incredulously. “Are you sure that’s how you figured it out? You didn’t happen to know beforehand?’

Garak looked at him intently and turned back toward Sisko. “You know Mr. Sisko teaches this content in a _very_ fascinating way, maybe you should pay attention.

 

Garak wouldn’t speak to Julian the rest of the class, but as they were being dismissed he turned towards Julian and smiled. “It was a pleasure _Doctor_ Bashir. We should have lunch sometime.” And before Julian could respond, he turned and walked out of the classroom, disappearing into the throng of students.

Jadzia and Miles quickly walked up to Julian, Jadzia’s eyes glowing mischievously.

“Well look who has an admirer. I’ve never seen Garak that interested in anyone besides Odo.”

“You know him?”

“He’s the only Cardassian on campus, most people know _of_ him, but Odo has talked about him. They have classes together, the two of them are always competing for the top grade, or being the first to complete forensic labs, or the best riddle. They have a bit of a rivalry going on. Apparently he’s intelligent, but hard to deal with; you can never know if he’s telling the truth or not.”

“Interesting,” Julian said.

“I’d love to tell you more, but I have class in half an hour; come meet us in the Union for lunch at 13:00 if you can.”

“Wouldn’t miss it,” Julian said, but his excitement had diminished. Jadzia was a great person, and he still wanted to spend more time with her and get to know her better, but his romantic interest had somehow dwindled, and he was unsure why. All he could think about was the strange Cardassian student, dressed in Terran fashion, who seemed to know more about him than he should. It seemed that Julian would have to do some detective work, and lunch at the Union would be the best place, considering Odo would be there.

 

Julian was at the Union half and hour early, he wanted to catch Odo as soon as he arrived. He had double checked that Odo was not inside, and he waited on a bench that had a view of all of the entrances. He only had to wait about ten minutes until he saw him walking into the front door.

“Odo!” Julian shouted running up to him.

“Oh, Julian Bashir, have you been waiting to accost me out here?”

Julian looked sheepish. “Sorry, I just had some questions I needed to ask you.”

Odo snorted derisively. “Well go ahead, but I suggest you get something to eat first, I know that you solids tend to get hungry in the middle of the day.”

Julian nodded and entered the union with Odo, grabbed a sandwich and plomeek soup from the replicator and sat down at an empty table with him.

“Now,” said Odo “what is it that is so urgent.”

“I need to talk to you about Garak.”

“Garak? Hmph why in the world would you want to talk to me about him?”

“He sat next to me in philosophy recitation, he’s incredibly mysterious an fascinating and I want to know more about him.”

Odo looked at the way Julian’s eyes were shining, apparently without his realization, and understood what was starting to happen in Julian’s heart, even though it’s owner appeared to have no clue.

“I…suppose I can tell you what I know, but its not much I’m afraid.”

“Well, I’m sure anything is helpful.”

“Hmm, well first off he’s obviously part of the Cardassain exchange program, but it seems to be against his will. He doesn’t talk much about himself or his family, but from what I can gather, his father is a very important person in some part of Cardassian politic, and Garak, himself seems to have been part of whatever organization his father was in, or at least trained to be in it from an early age. He’s very intelligent, and very observant and has many skills that a person should really not have. As to the rest of  his history, all I know is that he is currently not allowed to go back to Cardassia as he displeased someone important, but he will not tell anyone what he did, he simply makes up more and more absurd stories. He almost never tells the truth, or rather, he does tell the truth but it is buried deeply within his lies. And that’s about all I know, I am not one to get into someone else’s business if they are not currently a danger to organized society.”

“Does anyone else know a about him?”

“I’ve never seen him interact with anyone besides me, unless it is required or part of his classes, but I assume the college database will have something on him.”

“Great! Thank you Odo.”

“I… wouldn’t get yourself too involved with him” Odo said “He’s not the safest person to spend time with.”

But Julian was shoveling food into his mouth and packing up his belongings.

“Tell Jadzia and the others I’ll have to catch them some other time, I’ve got something I have to do. I’ll see you Odo, thanks again.”

And before Odo could protest, Julian had left the replimat and was presumably heading to the library.

Unfortunately, Julian’s quest proved fruitless. None of the information on the database was useful, in fact, there seemed to be less information on Garak than there was on the other students enrolled, as if some of it had been deleted. He spent the next two weeks in the library looking for ANYTHING that pertained to Garak. They had even met for lunch a couple times, but all Garak would talk about was fashion, and Cardassian literature, no matte how much Julian tried to change the subject. And he had finally decided to give up. He’d have to take his time with Garak, and who knew how long that would take. And he still didn’t understand how he felt; the weird tingling in his stomach would not go away. Head low, he headed back to his dorm.

Miles came in shortly after, and completely ignored Julian greeting and laid down silently on the bed. Julian must have bene muttering to himself as he looked at the list of what he knew about Garak, because all of a sudden Miles yelled at him “WOULD YOU PLEASE SHUT THE BLOODY HELL UP”

Julian looked at him, surprised and hurt. Sure Miles was gruff towards him, and shut downmost of his ramblings, but they had gotten along somewhat okay, as they had ended up in the same friend group, along with Odo, Kira, and Jadzia. He had never SWORE at him before.

Miles’ expression suddenly softened. “I’m sorry Julian, I’ve just…. I did something that… well I don’t know, I just don’t bloody know.”


	4. Lizardine Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mile's friend Tosk has suddenly appeared at DSU. But are the two friend's feelings more than platonic? Will the two of them be able to figure out their own emotions?

Back at his old university, Miles had befriended a lone student named Tosk who had come to the university rather suddenly, and was incredibly paranoid and afraid. But the two of them had developed a bond with each other, and spent a lot of time together teaching each other about their respected cultures. They both found each other strange, but fascinating. But Tosk had ran from that university. He was only ever going to be there temporarily. He was part of a species that was solely used for being hunted, and had failed his final training. As Prey would never be fun to hunt if they were bad at it, any Tosk who failed their training was sent to a random planet for a while as punishment and were then tested again.

Miles though he would never see Tosk again, and was incredibly surprised, when on his first day at DSU, Tosk showed up in his GE literature course. He was on the other side of the room, and did not notice him, but Miles quickly approached him after the class was over.

“Tosk! My God I thought I’d never see you again!”

Tosk, turned and his face lit up. “Oh’Brien, you are here too!”

“What happened, I thought you went back to being hunted?”

“I failed. I now must stay here in exile… But it is ok now that I know you are here.”

Miles grinned and his heart suddenly felt full. “Well it’s bloody great to see you back we’ll make sure that you adapt to here just fine.”

And Miles did make sure of it. The next two weeks, while Julian was trying to research Garak, Miles had split his time between Keiko, and Tosk. Keiko had even joked that he was dating both of them, and Miles had vehemently denied that he though of Tosk as any more than a friend, but ended the rant with:

”But would you be _ok_ if I was? I mean, hypothetically.”

Keiko had laughed and said she’d be perfectly fine with it, she knew Miles well, and saw what he was feeling even if he was in denial.

Miles left that conversation feeling very confused. Why did his heart leap when Keiko had said she would be fine with him dating Tosk? It’s not like he _wanted_  to or anything. Tosk was just a close friend, they shared a strong _platonic_ bond nothing more.

He was still confused the next day when he went to Tosk’s dorm. Tosk was pacing around the room excitedly holding a data stick.

“Oh’Brien, I found this.” He said, “A Terran movie, part of your culture. We should watch it.

“What the hell. If you want Tosk, we might as well”

But Miles regretted his decision as soon as the  movie started. It was a romance, exactly what he did not want to see at the moment. He felt a weight in the pit of his stomach as anxiety overwhelmed him, but Tosk was staring starry-eyed at the screen, and seemed to be enjoying it. Miles couldn’t help notice that Tosk kept intermittently glancing at him throughout the movie which made Miles’ heart jump into his throat. Finally, the movie was over, but Tosk was still staring at the blank screen.

“Tosk, are you alright?”

“Oh’Brien, I… I do not understand. Why do they do that?”

“W-what, the people in the movie? Well they’re both in love with each other, but at first they didn’t realize it. So they spent a lot of time denying their feelings, but once they finally accepted them and do, well, that stuff at the end.”

Tosk looked up at Miles and gently brushed his hand to his face. Miles’ chest tightened but in a strangely good way as Tosk ran his fingers from his cheek down to his neck, emulating the main character at the climax of the movie.

“You are scratchy, Tosk said softly.”

“Well, um,  I mean, my… my beard is starting to grow back, it… it does that by the end of the day.”

“It is nice”

“Oh… um, thanks.”

“I do not understand.”

“What, you gave me a compliment and I thanked you for it.”

“No,” Tosk said “I am Tosk we do not, we do not _feel_ for others.”

“What do you mean feel?”

“I do not know”

“Tosk, you’ve gotta…” Miles looked into Tosk’s face and suddenly felt something leap up inside his soul, and it was almost as if he had lost control.

“Oh _bloody_ hell.” He growled and leaned forward, kissing Tosk, almost out of instinct.

He had never felt the sensations he had as his lips pressed into Tosk’s and gently parted them, holding that position for a few seconds before finally separating. Then, he realized what he had done.

“Oh, um… I just remembered I have homework to do” he said quickly and nearly ran out the door leaving a very confused Tosk staring out the door barely hearing him cry “Oh’Brien”  as he went to the turbolift. He nearly ran back to his room, barely noticing Julian as he sat on his bed. What had he _d_ _one_? He tried to collect his thoughts but Julian had started muttering to himself and it was grating on his ears. He found himself screaming at him but when he saw the hurt look on Julian’s face immediately apologized.

“Well, what happened?” Julian asked, and Miles found himself explaining the whole story.

 

“I sounds to me like you _are_ in love with him, Miles,” Julian said gently, “and I get it.”

“What could you understand about this situation?”

Julian smiled. “Well you might have just helped me do so, I… I think I have been experiencing the same thing towards Garak, but _please_ don’t tell anybody.”

Miles was surprised: did he and Julian actually have something in common?

“Fine. As long as you don’t tell anyone about Tosk.”

“Deal.”

“But, what should I do?”

“From what I can tell about Tosk, he might be very confused, I mean you did kiss him and run away, I think you should go back to him and explain yourself”

“You know that’s actually smart thinking… thanks. But that means that I should go now, I’ll be back soon.”

Miles nearly sprinted back to Tosk’s dorm and was out of breath when he arrived. Tosk was sitting dejectedly and barely looked up when Miles came in.

“Tosk,” Miles said.

“Oh’Brien. I am sorry I hurt you.”

“Oh no, you didn’t do anything of the sort I was just… confused, and scared. I didn’t understand my feelings and I tried to run from them. I…”

And Miles leaned forward and kissed Tosk, deeper this time, running his fingers along the scales on Tosk’s neck and chest and only separated from him when he ran out of breath.

“That…” Miles said breathlessly

“I do too,” Tosk replied softly. “Oh’Brien.”

 

Julian’s advice had worked, and Miles was impressed. And he was also impressed that they had something in common; both had an affection for their lizardine companions. It must have been the fact that they had something to bond over, because after that night, Miles was much less gruff with Julian, and the two of them began doing activities together, hanging out as _friends_ instead of classmates and acquaintances. Without realizing it, Tosk and Garak had started a beautiful friendship.


End file.
